India has an ‘excellent chance’ of retaining Chess Olympiad title: captain Srinath
Indian Chess Olympiad team captain N. Srinath expressed confidence in the team's ability to retain their title at the upcoming competition in Samarkand. Despite the pressure of being defending champions, the team plans to approach the tournament with a fresh mindset and positive spirit.
Why it matters
This highlights India's growing prominence and competitive success in the global chess arena.
If the India Open team is to replicate its near-perfect Chess Olympiad 2024 campaign, it will take some doing.
India will have the ‘defending champion’ tag attached to it throughout the global competition in Samarkand in September and will be expected to deliver another strong show. But captain N. Srinath stressed that his squad will not carry any “baggage”, saying that it will begin from square one just like any other team.
“We will not do that (put themselves under pressure for being the reigning champ); we are all professionals. We start from zero this time. But we will definitely look to have the positive team spirit which we had in the last Olympiad. We will continue to have fun,” Srinath said on the sidelines of the just-concluded Chennai Grand Masters here.
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